On this page we will present new technology of interest to the disabled community as we learn of it.

Added 23 March 2017

Some good news for the hard-of-hearingThe Sound ShirtThe Junge Symphoniker Hamburg orchestra has a lot of ideas to bring music to life for people who would otherwise have little access to classical music. The musicians have come up with a revolutionary idea: a “sound shirt” for people who are hearing-impaired. (Video length 4:33)http://www.dw.com/en/the-sound-shirt/av-37999754

Brain-computer interface allows completely locked-in people to communicate31.01.2017Completely locked-in participants report being “happy”A brain-computer interface that can decipher the thoughts of people who are unable to

communicate could revolutionize the lives of those living with complete locked-in

syndrome according to a new paper published in PLOS Biology. Counter to expectations,

the participants in the study reported being “happy” despite their condition.

DynamicBracingSolutions™ is The National Network of Clinicians dedicated to a 21st Century approach to HOLISTIC bracing for neuromuscular disorders.

It is DynamicBracingSolutions'™ purpose to provide solutions to deficiencies in locomotion on an individual basis. Providing solutions that enable a person to reach their potential outcome. Rehabilitation is to restore to a former capacity; state of efficiency; condition of health or useful and constructive activity. The most important factor is caring to make a difference. DynamicBracingSolutions™ is really about people helping people to regain function otherwise lost to disability.

Unity of purpose is the primary motivation. Orthotic services cannot be separated from Physical Therapy services. Every member of the team is responsible to the goals of rehabilitation. The client is ultimately responsible for the outcome with the help of the team clinicians.*******

To enable the ultimate goal of efficient walking requires much more than making a brace for

a limb. It requires a greater understanding of the Individual in need. Efficient walking must be

planned. There are a plethora of issues that must first be recognized before they can be

solved. The bracing of the future will no longer just be molded materials around a limb ...

WASHINGTON [D.C., we assume] — A paralyzed man is regaining a sense of touch while using a mind-controlled robotic hand, feeling subtle pressure in his own fingers when the artificial ones are touched. The experiment reported Thursday is an early step in the quest to create prosthetics that can feel.

How it works: Tiny chips implanted in Nathan Copeland’s brain are bypassing his broken spinal cord, relaying electrical signals that govern movement and sensation to and from that robotic arm.

Surgeons use robot to operate inside eye in world firstBritish surgeons hail successful procedure to remove membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from retina. Professor Robert MacLaren praised the success of the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye.Friday 9 September 2016 21.20 EDT

British surgeons have successfully performed the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye, potentially revolutionising the way such conditions are treated.

The procedure was carried out at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where surgeons welcomed its success.

"We designed and built a glove to be worn on the right hand that uses a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm to translate sign language into spoken English. Every person's hand is a unique size and shape, and we aimed to create a device that could provide reliable translations regardless of those differences. Our device uses five Spectra Symbol Flex-Sensors that we use to quantify how much each finger is bent, and the MPU-6050 (a three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope) is able to detect the orientation and rotational movement of the hand. These sensors are read, averaged, and arranged into packets using an ATmega1284p microcontroller. These packets are then sent serially to a user's PC to be run in conjunction with a Python script. The user creates data sets of information from the glove for each gesture that should eventually be translated, and the algorithm trains over these datasets to predict later at runtime what a user is signing."

Added 1 May 2016

Blind Boy Sees Mom For The First Time, And It’s Magical (excerpt)04/29/2016 05:27 am ETLee MoranTrends Editor, The Huffington PostIt’s a heartwarming moment this mom will never forget.Marquita Hackley’s son Christopher Ward Jr., who has been legally blind since birth, saw her clearly for the very first time. Christopher was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, which means he can only see objects from really up close.“As a mother going 12 years with your child not being able to clearly see, I don’t really have words for it,” she told the New York Daily News.Full story:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/legally-blind-christopher-ward-electronic-glasses_us_57230e28e4b01a5ebde545ff

In this YouTube video [see link below], Shubham Banerjee explains his low-cost Braille printer created from Lego. He designed the printer at the family kitchen table in Santa Clara, an hour south of San Francisco. The idea is to print Braille reading materials from a personal computer or electronic device on to paper using raised dots. His startup, Braigo Labs, has received undisclosed seed capital from backers who think it could shake up the market for the visually impaired.